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<\/p>\nThe three main characters in Steven Spielberg\u2019s classic shocker Jaws \u2013 Martin Brody, Matt Hooper and a man known only as Quint \u2013 are iconic. The 1975 film, and that trio, entered the pop culture lexicon 50 years ago, and haven\u2019t left since.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been argued that Jaws is only partly about a killer shark. The uncomfortable bond that\u2019s formed out of necessity between the pragmatic police chief, the rich-kid marine biologist and the grizzled veteran fisherman is the beating heart of Spielberg\u2019s beloved blockbuster.<\/p>\n
Ian Shaw wrote the play The Shark is Broken based on reports, both published and private, about the difficulties encountered by the cast and crew during the production of Jaws on the island of Martha\u2019s Vineyard, Massachusetts in 1974. The title refers to Spielberg\u2019s 25-foot mechanical shark, which tended to malfunction frequently, causing interminable delays.<\/p>\n
Shaw\u2019s father was Welsh stage and screen actor Robert Shaw, who starred as Quint. In the play, which was a major hit on Broadway and London\u2019s West End, Robert Shaw and actors Roy Scheider (cast as Brody) and Richard Dreyfuss (Hooper) while away their downtime on the movie set, playing cards, drinking, arguing, philosophizing \u00a0\u2013 and in Dreyfuss\u2019 case, whining \u2013 as they await the inevitable shout-out that the shark is once again operational.<\/p>\n
Jobsite Theater\u2019s production of The Shark is Broken opens March 11, directed by David M. Jenkins. Here on the Shimberg Playhouse stage are Shaw (Paul Potenza), Scheider (Christopher Marshall) and Dreyfuss (Cody Farkus), bored and bitchy, on the mock-up of Quint\u2019s boat Orca.<\/p>\n
These bay area actors are playing art imitating art imitating art (imitating life), and they\u2019re aware that the bar has not only been set \u2013 everyone on the planet has likely seen Jaws \u2013 but that doing impersonations doesn\u2019t do anybody, cast crew or audience, any favors.<\/p>\n
For Marshall, that smells like a losing proposition. \u201cI think it\u2019s next to impossible to do that,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you\u2019re reaching for that, then there\u2019s very little truth in what you\u2019re doing. Because it\u2019s a story. It\u2019s not just three cartoon characters walking around a stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo much of acting is responding to what\u2019s being given you. Yes, you\u2019re trying to achieve some level of a nod to that person, but if that\u2019s all you\u2019re playing, then you\u2019re not playing the story as written. Because this is not Jaws. This is a new story.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also, in places, a very funny story. At one point, Scheider says \u201cOne thing\u2019s for certain \u2013 there will never be a more amoral president than Tricky Dicky.\u201d He also announces that if they ever make a sequel to Jaws, by God, he will not be it.<\/p>\n
Shaw says he won\u2019t, either. \u201cGood luck to them bringing Quint back from the dead,\u201d he grumbles.<\/p>\n
(Scheider, in fact, did return for the regrettable Jaws 2.)<\/p>\n
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The well-documented on-set dischord between the seasoned and hard-drinking Shaw and the relative newcomer Dreyfuss imbues the storyline with tension, although a grudging respect emerges out of their forced downtime.<\/p>\n
Farkas, the youngest member of this team, hasn\u2019t done as much stagework as his two veteran co-stars. \u201cThey already knew each other and had worked together,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that helped with the dynamic \u2013 \u2018here are these two more experienced actors, and this Jewish neurotic who\u2019s kind of new on the scene, and doesn\u2019t really know anything.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Farkas prepared by watching Dreyfuss films and video interviews from the period, observing his fidgety mannerisms and hand gestures. \u201cUnfortunately,\u201d Farkas admits \u201cI kind of do a lot of that stuff already.\u201d<\/p>\n
Potenza delivers Shaw-as-Quint\u2019s \u201cIndianapolis\u201d monologue \u2013 before going in front of Spielberg\u2019s cameras, he\u2019s rehearsing it in front of the others \u2013 with chilling intensity. \u201cWhen I think about Jaws, I think of Shaw\u2019s Quint as \u2018the big character,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThe boldness. Huge. To strip that away to be Shaw was harder for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a week before opening, and Potenza is still fine-tuning Shaw\u2019s voice (although the chameleonic actor already has the Quint accent down cold).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t soup yet, as far as who and what I\u2019m going to sound like,\u201d he laughs. \u201cYou can go all kinds of Scottish\/Irish, so it can be difficult. But I\u2019m having a good time doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n